One of the modules of Deshpande Fellowship Training happened was Eco-tourism for the period of a 5 days, from 23 September to 27th September 2008. In my life eco tourism would be the most remembering tour. We enjoyed a lot in the eco tourism. We visited Honnemaralu, situated in Sagar taluk, Uttarkannada District. We were guided by Mr. Swami and Mrs. Nomito who are of running an NGO called “The Adventures –A wilderness School”. This is an NGO which is working on conservation of forest through eco tourism model. As per the guidance from Adventure Team we did not use plastic, mobile and other electronic things. This was totally tension free and informatic tour.
First day we had interaction with Mr. Swami, Mrs. Nomito and other staff. We enjoyed swimming with the help of life jacket in the Sharavati back water. This was my first experience of swimming. In the beginning I was afraid a lot to get into the water, I felt it as a matter of life and death. But with the help of guides and friends I could able to enjoy the water sports. This gave me courage to take challenges and risk. We all fellows enjoyed a lot in the water. After that Mrs. Nomito made us to play some trust worthy games, that time we learnt that how teamwork is important in the organization. Everyone should trust each other and should maintain that trust, and then only the organization can develop.
Second day it was 24th September ‘08 we learnt paddling and swimming. These were my most exciting moments. In each boat 4 fellows did paddling in the back water of Sharawati. While doing paddling I felt that I am in new a world .By doing paddling my confidence level increased and I gained grip on that activity and I realized that, practice will make human being perfect. The night was planned at one of the island, and we went there in boat by paddling by our own. We spent night in tent and enjoyed camp fire and food in the island.
On the third day we went to Keladi. It is one of the most famous historical places in Karnataka. In this village we visited Venkatesha Joshi’s house and had delicious lunch in their home. After having the orientation about Rameshwara temple we had opportunity to see kindarjogi program. I realized that this type of programmers could be an effective media to convey the message and educate people regarding several issues.
We had stayed In Ramnaik’s house in Kanur village on the third day night. The 4th day of Eco tourism started at 9-30 am from Ramnaik’s house of Kanur village. Morning we had breakfast and we started trekking. Jagadish and Triveni took the responsibility of leading the fellows in the trekking. In this we went through agriculture field, forest and Shola forest. Fellows got bitten by leeches. In between the trekking we stayed in the home of Mr. John at Mundaval, here we took little rest, and we had a tea and started moving towards Kanur fort at evening. This fort built by Queen Channabhairadevi of Gerusoppa kingdom. She started first International trade in India, by this she use to get gold coins. The resource person Mr. Nagaraj Jain said that to protect these gold coins and war instruments she built this fort. Still we can see the ruined monuments of ancient fort, temple. There are three interesting things about this fort firs thing is it is situated in a very safe place, no one can recognize it from long distance. The second thing is it has 7 entrances; no one can enter in to the fort easily. Third thing is there is very scientific method of water conservation. Here we can see the excellent methods Gerusoppa kings to conserve water.
Late evening we came back to home of John. In night all fellows had discussion with swami sir and another resource person Mr. Nagaraj Jain. Fellows shared their experiences with others.
In this eco tourism I came to know that how can we save our nature with less intervention, what is our role in this, we are talking about globalization but how to stop that, these are some important question everyone should think about this. I came to know the new intervention where social Entrepreneurs can do.
